Ill wind blows no good in county

By STEVE POWELL

Herald Writer

MARYSVILLE — Tina Duesler was able to have a sense of humor Friday even though she’d been up all night with her family after a huge tree limb crashed into their home.

"We were just getting it broke in," she said of the 2-year-old house on the Tulalip Reservation near Marysville. "Now it’s really broke in."

The first storm of the season caused other problems around Snohomish and Island counties. Power outages were reported on Whidbey Island and near Stanwood. And the ferry at Keystone was delayed. A half-inch of rain led to slick roads that caused some fender-bender accidents and delays for commuters.

Friday night, a lightning storm delayed the Lynnwood-Everett high school football game in Edmonds.

The weather won’t get much better this weekend, as rain was in the forecast for this morning, with the snow level at 3,500 feet.

The Dueslers seemed to get the brunt of the recent storm, and Tina thinks she knows why.

"We’ve nicknamed this area Windy Ridge, and it sure lived up to its name," she said.

Tina woke up about 2 a.m. when she heard "ripping," "tearing" then a "thud" and "rumbling."

"The whole house was shaking like crazy with stuff falling off the walls," she said.

Luckily, no one was hurt. Her husband, Chuck, and sons Ronnie, 9, Erik, 6, and Zachary, 22 months, were asleep in bed on the other side of the house. The back porch is gone, and most of the damage is in the roof and attic of the living room, kitchen and dining room.

"The back door, all it is is a tree," she said, adding the house on Marine Drive is insured.

The insurance company made sure a tarp was put on the roof to prevent any more damage, and the tree was cut up with a chain saw.

The accident shook up the entire family.

"Nobody went back to sleep," she said. The kids, "they’re scared."

Tina said they’ve been after their neighbors to do something about the tree.

"It never got done. Now it’s too late," she said.

powell@heraldnet.com.